


Uncovered

by Woozletania



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 17:04:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18832945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woozletania/pseuds/Woozletania
Summary: When Rocket loses his fur in a raid on a chemical factory, more than his skin is revealed.





	Uncovered

"Rocket! Look out! Rocket!"

That was how it started. Or you might argue it started the day before that, with the Guardians clustered around the common table arguing about missions.

"Brood," Gamora said, stabbing a holographic planet with her dagger. "No. I use my veto. The best thing for them is blast the hive from space. Let the Kree handle it."

"You always say that," Star-Lord complained.

"Hey, the lady's got a point," Rocket opined. "Remember what happened the last time we took on the bugs?"

Peter shuddered. Too much hospital time, is what happened. Careful surgeries to remove the Brood eggs before they hatched. And almost as much time spent trying to keep Rocket calmed down. The little raccoon would almost rather be eaten from the inside out by hatching Brood than spend time in a hospital. Doctors, the smell of disinfectant, the mere sight of a scalpel. It all set him off and Peter had a pretty good idea why.

"Okay. No argument, Gamora. We don't do Brood. What else do we have?"

Drax tapped keys with thick fingers. One screen after another popped up in midair. Pirate activity? Peter waved the screen out of existence after one glance. Not enough hard data. Pirates survived by not being where you expected them to be. You could spent a lot of time hunting and still come up empty.

There was a virulent plague on Septimus, a Rigellian colony. Peter used his veto. He'd learned while working with the Ravagers that he caught Rigellian Flu easily. He didn't need another bout of that, or of something worse. Nova would find someone else to make the run.

On the other side of the table teenage Groot looked up from his game long enough to jab a woody finger at an item on a hovering list. "I am Groot."

"A cosmetics factory? Are you kidding me?"

"An illegal cosmetic factory," Drax rumbled.

"Why is it illegal," Mantis chipped in.

"I am Groot."

"Wait, where did you see that?" Quick as a flash Rockets little hands tore into the floating data, expanding some entries, swiping others out of existence. "Okay. Good eye, buddy. I say we do this one. No, I'm rephrasing that. We're doing this one."

Gamora and Star-Lord had spent their vetoes, and if they still had them they wouldn't have objected, though the bounty wasn't high. Nor did Mantis, Drax or Groot. This had happened before. If they didn't agree, Rocket would go on his own, That meant Groot would go too, and Drax, and probably Gamora. Might as well just knuckle under at the start, because of all the things that got under Rocket's fur, illegal animal research was the thing that got him angriest.

And that was how it happened. They were fighting their way through the factory's automated defenses, with a few mercenary guards thrown in for good measure, when Rocket got driven into cover by a hail of fire. Being little and quick saved him as it had so many times before but by the time Drax and Gamora took out the autocannons firing on him they'd punched a hole in a storage tank right over the raccoon's head.

"Rocket, look out!" But it was too late. Liquid spewed from the tank and though Rocket somehow managed to pull on a facemask before it hit, he was drenched from head to toe in who knows what. The little raccoon slipped in the pool of fluid and Groot shot out tendrils to rescue him. He was too slow. Drax, heedless of his own safety, rushed right into the spray and scooped him up.

"Okay, okay already! Put me down, you das't idiot!" Drax didn't put him down. He was staring in horror as Rocket's fur dissolved.

"It's corrosive! Go, go!" Star-Lord waved Drax toward a full-body wash they'd just passed. Any facility with dangerous chemicals would have at least eye wash stations and this one was designed to spray your whole body. Whatever the chemical was didn't seem to effect Drax's skin at all but he stomped on a floor pedal and stepped in just the same, holding Rocket under the shower.

"Agh! Cold! Cut it out!" Gamora was dealing with the last of the mercenaries and Mantis was watching their six, which let Groot and Peter concentrate on Rocket. It wasn't pretty. The little raccoon's fur came off in clumps, breaking down into clear slime the shower washed away. As usual he was clothed from knees to shoulders, but that left his arms, lower legs, tail and head exposed, and for the first time they saw Rocket's skin.

They'd seen his black nosepad and the wrinkly pads of his hands and feet before, but as the fur disintegrated they saw more. He seemed to get smaller as the bulk of his pelt dissolved, leaving just a naked rat tail and pink skin.

And scars. So many scars. The lab hadn't been kind to Rocket. Lengthwise stitch tracks ran down each limb, along each finger, around the sides and top of has head. Medical staples left permanent divots in the pink skin between his ears. And bolts. They'd put him back together with stitches, staples and bolts, which showed at his collarbones - they'd seen those before - but now they saw the smaller ones at most of his joints. With his fur, Rocket could be an adorably angry little person. Without it, they saw the jigsaw puzzle of pieces the lab had cut him into before stapling him back together.

"What are you all staring at? Put me down!" But Groot snatched Rocket up and ran for the ship, accompanied by Mantis. The only reason the rest didn't follow is they were through the defenses and almost to the records office. Another half hour of work and they could claim the bounty by turning over all those incriminating files hiding just a few doors away.

"I am Groot."

"No! I'm not taking it off."

"I am Groot!"

"He is right, puppy," Mantis said. Gingerly she reached out, her hand just barely brushing Rocket's naked pink ears. She jerked back when he growled and showed his fangs. Still she did not relent.  


"Whatever that chemical was soaked your suit," she continued. "It doesn't seem to have hurt your skin where it was washed off, but who knows what it will do to you if it stays on."

"It's not doing nothing." Rocket crossed his arms stubbornly. "I'm fine." As though to prove a point, clear fluid and the remains of fur dripped from inside his vest.

"I. Am. Groot."

"You wouldn't dare."

"If he doesn't make you take a shower, Drax will when he gets back," Mantis said reasonably. "You know he will."

"Fine." Rocket kicked a chair irritably before jumping down off the table. "I better not catch either of you peeking." He glared at the two before unsnapping his vest and ducking into the bathroom.

The problem was that next to the shower door was a full-length mirror. After an unusually long time under the water, presumably one spent finding out just how little fur he had left, Rocket took one look at the mirror and disappeared into an air vent. All they saw was a flash of naked pink tail and he was gone.

"I am Groot," said the tree from just below the vent.

"Please come out," echoed Mantis from below a different one. "You can't stay in the vents. You'll get cold without fur."

"I'm fine," came a voice from somewhere in the bowels of the ship. "Go away."

"There is no food in there, and no toilet," said Mantis reasonably. She tapped her foot as she thought. "When Gamora and Drax get back, they will be angry. We still need to see if that chemical did anything to your skin." She didn't mention Peter, who was enough of a joker to poke fun at the naked raccoon. Star-Lord could swing one way and then another, caring and sympathetic one moment and then 90% a dick the next.

"Don't care," came a surly growl.

"I am Groot," said the teenage tree, which provoked an instant response.

"You stick your vines in here and I'm going to start hacking," Rocket growled. "I brought my gear with me."

"Rocket," Mantis said, perceiving an angle of attack. "Is that what you want? To threaten your son over this?"

There was a long pause, then a shuffle and click of claws. In the shadows of the vent Mantis saw a furry face approach. The little raccoon's bandit mask survived, but his cheek-ruffs and all the fur else past his ears was gone.

"I don't know what to do," Rocket whined. "But I can't come out. Not like this."

"I am Groot," suggested the tree, and Mantis smiled.

"Good idea."

When Peter, Drax and Gamora returned to the ship, rather more careworn than when they left, Peter was astonished to see Rocket bundled up a fuzzy pink bathrobe much too large for him. The little raccoon had turned the collar up and made a hood that concealed all of him but his face. His black nose and furry muzzle poked out and his eyes shone in the shadows of the hood.

So oversized was Mantis's robe on him that it was a shapeless mass in the chair. Only his nose and hands were exposed and he had on a set of Mantis's gloves to go with the bathrobe.

"Not a word," he growled as a grin spread across Star-Lord's face. "Whatever it was, it just ate my fur. Didn't touch the rest of me."

"That's because what you soaked in was depilatory," Gamora said. "I had to look that word up, too. They make a chemical here that is used to remove hair for cosmetic reasons, for operations, and so on."  


When Rocket turned his gaze to Drax the giant shrugged. "No hair."

"I am Groot," said the tree. _None here either._

"Yeah, whereas I am all hair." Rocket caught Peter staring and pulled the makeshift hood closer around his head. Only for a second was pink skin visible. "So it'll grow back?"

"Yeah, it will. You don't have to wear that, Rocket."

"I'm cold."

"We could turn the ship temperature up."

"I'm _fine,_ Pete."

"Rocket." It was Gamora's turn. "We saw. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Scars are marks of honor," Drax added.

"Maybe yours are," the raccoon snapped. "I got some scars I'm proud of. Ones I got fighting. I got a lot more I'd rather not be out in the open."

"Rocket." Peter reached out and touched the fuzzy hood that covered his friend's head. In a motion almost too fast to follow Rocket reached up and brushed his hand away. "I knew what was under your fur from the moment I saw your back on the Kyln. It doesn't matter, Rocket. What they did to you isn't something to be embarrassed about. We care about _you,_ not your scars."

"Great," Rocket groused. "Now tell me what you found in there."

"Research," Drax said. Rocket growled and the giant went on. "Animals used for cosmetics testing. Shaved in some cases, so their skin could be used to test reactions to chemicals. Some were naked, like you are. They probably used them to test the dep...the stuff that sprayed you."

"Nothing strange," Gamora added, which meant _Nothing like you, Rocket._

"And records," Star-Lord went on. "We have enough to give to Nova to shut the company down."

"Good," Rocket muttered. "Another one bites the dust."

With every eye on him he withdrew deeper into the hood. "Stop staring. You know I hate that."

Soon after he crafted himself a new outfit, armored like the old one but all-encompassing, boots and gloves included. Only his furry face showed, when he didn't have the helmet buttoned up. Never a glimpse of naked pink tail or little furless clawed hands. He would wear it around the crew for more than a month, or the bathrobe, until enough of his fur grew back to cover him.

It was a stark contrast. Seeing Rocket in that oversized fuzzy bathrobe, tiny and adorable, made him smile. Then Rocket would flinch away from a shiny surface and pull the hood tighter around his head. The smile was gone just that fast.

Peter tried telling him, more than once, that he didn't need to cover up. Rocket just shrugged. If he took the suit off at all it was to sleep, and he never undressed where anyone could see. But that wasn't it. That wasn't the worst of it. When Rocket removed the bathroom mirror "to work on the brackets" and never put it back, Star-Lord put two and two together.

Rocket wasn't covering up to avoid mockery. He was used to being mocked. The mirror was the final clue.

He wasn't afraid they'd see what was under his fur. He was afraid _he_ would.


End file.
